Posted on 10/26/2007 6:49:11 PM PDT by VA Voter
I am 24, live with my parents, can’t find work and am floundering in a sea of debt five figures high. I think of myself as ambitious, independent and hardworking. Now I’m dependent, unemployed and sleeping under the same Super Mario ceiling fan that I did when I was 7.
How did this happen? I did what every upstanding citizen is supposed to do. I went to college. I took out loans so I could enroll at Alfred University, a pricey private school. The next year, I transferred to the more finance-friendly University at Buffalo, where I could commute from home and push carts part-time at Home Depot.
I related my forthcoming debt to puberty or a midlife crisis — each an unavoidable nuisance; tickets required upon admission to the next stage of adulthood. But as interest rates climbed and the cost of tuition, books and daily living mounted to galactic proportions,
I realized this was more than some paltry inconvenience.
Upon graduating, I was helplessly launched headfirst into the “real world,” equipped with a degree in history and $32,000 in student loans. Before ricocheting back home, I would learn two important lessons: 1) There are no well-paying — let alone paying — jobs for history majors. 2) The real world is really tough.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and I had no intention of living in a society that was as unfair as this one. To seek a haven devoid of the ruthless 9-to-5 ebb and flow of contemporary America, I moved to Alaska.
As a liberal arts major, I dreamed of making a profound difference in people’s lives. Instead, for a year, I lived in Coldfoot, a town north of the Arctic Circle that resembles a Soviet Gulag camp. My job as a tour guide for visitors temporarily alleviated my money woes because it provided room and board, but when the season ended and I moved back home, I was again confronted with the grim realities of debt.
Desperate, I browsed through insurance and bank job descriptions. I had hit an all-time low. Could I surrender my soul for health coverage and a steady income? Could I sacrifice my ideals by falling into line?
Suddenly, living at home didn’t seem nearly as degrading as selling out. But sadly, other graduates don’t have any choice but to work for temp agencies and retail stores to eke by.
That’s the tragedy of student debt: it doesn’t just limit what we do, but who we become. Forget volunteering. Forget traveling. Forget trying to improve your country, or yourself. You’ve got bills to pay, young man.
Unfortunately, the recent passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act doesn’t portend that times are a-changin’. The act reduces interest rates on Stafford Loans and increases Pell Grant awards. Whoopty-do.
There’s no question that this is a step forward. But we’re still talking pennies and nickels when we need to completely revolutionize the government’s role in financing post-secondary education.
College is a wonderful experience and something every young citizen should pursue. But without help, a college education is becoming an unaffordable rite of passage and a privilege of the affluent.
My loan payments can’t wait much longer, and soon I must leave home to find work that doesn’t compromise my integrity. Although I sometimes wonder what it would be like if I had declared as an accounting major and got a cushy job punching numbers somewhere, I’ll take my history major, my debt and my mom’s cooking any day of the week.
Ken Ilgunas, who lives in Niagara Falls, fears college is becoming unaffordable for most Americans.
I think student loans are ruining our kids. It's a right now. They used to work their way thru college. I did.
What do you want to bet that little Kenny is an only child?
There’s no question that this is a step forward. But we’re still talking pennies and nickels when we need to completely revolutionize the government’s role in financing post-secondary education.
So you want more of MY tax money to help you pay for an education which has failed to prevent you from becoming a whiny basement-dwelling f#$ktard? lol, you fail at LIFE. I'll send you a razor blade if you promise to use it on your wrists and become an hero. Remember, down the road, not across the street.
I wonder what his DU name is.
That's a relief, the last thing we need are more socialist do-gooders, I love it when a liberal is mugged by reality. Why couldn't he go to a cheap junior college to begin with? Why did he need to spen $30,000+ to get a degree at Dummy U. ?
try mowing lawns.
Maybe .... In one way I can understand. I am not a Monday-Friday 9-5 person either. I suggest he join the military. His schedule will vary, and he can travel the world and learn a trade that he can make a living at and get a steady paycheck every 2 weeks. (all the things he said he wants:’)
Give me your location.
What did the history major say to the engineer?
“Would you like fries with that?”
32,000 in debt? I wish.
I have peices of debt like that in my stool.
He could (*gasp!*) join the military and let the army pay off his debts.
Oh, that's awesome!
Getting a job is "selling out"?
This guy is the poster boy for Hillary's "New Direction".
Believe it or not, he actually was capable of keeping a job. He’s one of the best and the brightest ...
That’s why you go into community college and work on the weekends and the busy season you little wuss.
btw is there any demand for people with bussiness management skills? If there isn’t I’d better switch my major quick.
"I’ll take my history major, my debt and my mom’s cooking ..."
Ken, you're a pussy.
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